WSJ: – Moody’s downgrades six of Canada’s big banks.– Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the long-term ratings of six Canadian financial institutions, citing concerns over high levels of consumer debt and the risks of a drop in housing prices.

Learn Bonds: – Be wary of Dell’s unusually high bond yields.– In today’s ultra-low-interest-rate environment, A2/A- rated corporate debt with yields as high 6.834% may seem like a no-brainer investment. But in today’s low interest-rate environment, an A2/A- corporate bond rating does not warrant yields as high as that. So why do Dell’s bonds have such high yields?

Cate Long: – Illinois on the downward slope.– There are several reasons why raters view Illinois so negatively. The state’s spending is way out of line with its revenue and its deficit is about 25 percent of its annual budget. Unlike the federal government, Illinois cannot endlessly issue new bonds to cover annual shortfalls. Instead, the state simply delays paying its bills from year to year.

LiveMint: – Funds are flowing out of US govt bonds into emerging markets.– Funds continue to pour into emerging markets as investors exit from US government bonds and seek out high-risk equity assets for protection against inflation. The Indian markets as well as emerging market equities have been rallying while US bonds prices have fallen 2% in the past month.\

Index Universe: – iShares plans maturing-corp-bond ETF line-up.– iShares, the world’s biggest exchange-traded fund company by assets, looks to be planning an expansion of its presence in the relatively unexplored pocket of target-date maturity bond ETFs, with a series of regulatory filings over the past several weeks detailing corporate bond funds that will expire once all the bonds in a given portfolio mature.

Charles Margolis: – Don’t trip over erroneous BNY bond listing.– The secondary bond market lists a set of 2017 BNY Mellon bonds with a very impressive 5.28% yield. The only problem is, the listing appears to be totally erroneous.

Business Insider: – The curse of the new HQ!– We’ve written about the curse of the new HQ before on Business Insider. The basic premise is this, you open a new HQ and then your stock heads for a dive. Well PIMCO is just about ready to move into their new HQ. So what does that mean for bond markets?

Morningstar: – Why are investors buying bonds?– Yields have never been lower, but investors continue to flock to bond funds, according to Morningstar asset flows data. The taxable-bond fund group gained more than $260 billion in new assets in 2012, on top of $50 billion in new inflows in 2011, and munis gathered an additional $50 billion in new assets last year.

ETF Trends: – Muni bond ETFs: Got credit?– Moody’s, S&P and Fitch are the companies whose analyses of the legal, contractual and moral promises made by issuers result in a scorecard grade that may suggest the likelihood of full and timely repayment of their debts. I think it is a good time to revisit some of these important details, lest we lose sight of what brings strength to this market.